The Moynihan report came out decades ago and it was a controversial assessment of black families and poverty in America. Now, it's a point of contention between City Hall and One Police Plaza, with the mayor and the city's police commissioner at odds over its findings. NY1's Courtney Gross filed this report.
It was published fifty years ago, commonly referred to as the Moynihan report—named after the man who wrote it and later became a New York Senator.
It was as controversial then as it is now, an examination of black poverty in America—and it received a review from the city's police commissioner on on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Monday.
"Go read that again. Talk about being prescient about what was going to happen in black society, in terms of—he was right on the money—the disintegration of family, the disintegration of values," Bratton said.
"Everyone in this room knows I have immense respect for the commissioner and we have a strong vision of what we are doing here. I happen to disagree on this matter," Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
The matter being the report's thesis—that the disintegration of a family structure was responsible for economic struggles in African-American communities.
"That report is literally half a century old, and I think society has changed a lot. I think there are some assumptions in that report that just don't hold today," de Blasio said. "So I just think it's a report from another time."
The controversy left Bratton defending his remarks on Tuesday.
"People look at comments by myself, by public figures, through their own prism,"
"My takeaway, my prism, if you will, on the Moynihan report, was he was saying to the United State of America—we have damaged this community to an extraordinary degree and as a country we have to come together to work with them to ensure that they get all the benefits of American society of American government, all that they are entitled to that has been denied to them for 350 years," Bratton said.
The entire exchange may overshadow what Bratton was trying to talk about—that the city has had the safest summer on record.
On Tuesday, top brass explained murders were down almost 15 percent this summer, while shootings dipped nearly 12 percent compared to the same period last year.
Either way, it seemed like it was this clarification Bratton was thankful for.
"Thanks for asking that question because there are those that are going to be trying to... 'Bratton is a racist.' It just reflects an insensitivity. I am sorry. I am very sensitive to this issue," he said.